Chapter 6 - The Price of a Mother's Life
“She's not going anywhere without me,” Sebastian said.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
Anna knew that tone.
She had heard Charles Vale use it when he wanted everyone in a room to understand that arguing would be useless.
But Sebastian wasn't his father.
Not yet.
Anna pressed a button on the gate intercom.
“Charles, you know what happens if Margaret misses her medication.”
“Then don't waste my time.”
Sebastian stepped toward the speaker.
“You want Emily? Tell me why.”
A pause.
Then Charles answered.
“Because she has something that belongs to this family.”
Emily looked down at the necklace in her hand.
Sebastian noticed.
“Is it the pendant?”
Charles didn't respond.
Sebastian held it up toward the nearest security camera.
“Is this what you want?”
The speaker crackled.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
“Then she made a terrible mistake.”
Sebastian looked at Anna.
She seemed frightened for the first time.
“Don't give it to him,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“Because there's something inside it.”
Emily stared at the silver heart.
Sebastian turned it over.
The back looked ordinary except for the engraving.
Anna pointed.
“There's a small seam beneath the letter E.”
Sebastian pressed his thumbnail against it.
Nothing happened.
“Not here,” Anna said. “And not in front of the cameras.”
She turned toward the intercom.
“Charles, I'll bring them to the medical entrance. Sebastian stays with Emily.”
“No.”
“Then you can explain to Gregory why the state investigators receive the records I've already copied.”
A long silence followed.
The gate opened.
Grant moved closer to Sebastian.
“I don't like this.”
“Neither do I.”
Sebastian turned toward him.
“Stay near the vehicle. If anything happens, you know what to do.”
Grant nodded.
He had already prepared a secure evidence package for a trusted attorney and independent investigator.
It wasn't enough to convict anyone.
But it was enough to make disappearing inconvenient.
Anna led Sebastian and Emily through the gate.
The mansion smelled of antiseptic and old wood.
The main hallway had been renovated, but Sebastian recognized the staircase.
He remembered racing down it as a boy.
His mother had always told him not to run.
He looked toward the landing.
For an instant, he could almost see her standing there.
Then Emily touched his arm.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded.
But he wasn't.
Anna led them into a medical room.
Patricia Carter sat beside a window in a wheelchair.
Her hair was almost completely white.
She looked thin and tired.
But when she saw Emily, she raised both hands.
“My baby.”
Emily stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Patricia began crying.
Emily crossed the room and fell to her knees beside the chair.
For seven years, she'd carried flowers to a grave.
For seven years, she'd wished she could hear her mother's voice one more time.
Now Patricia was touching her face.
“Emily.”
“Why didn't you come home?”
Patricia sobbed.
“I tried.”
Emily pressed her forehead against her mother's hands.
“I thought you died.”
“I know, sweetheart. I know.”
Sebastian turned away.
He couldn't bear to watch without thinking of his own mother.
Anna knelt beside them.
Patricia looked at her younger daughter.
“You brought her.”
Anna nodded.
“She found us.”
Patricia closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
Emily looked between them.
“You knew?”
Anna's face tightened.
“Mom knew I was alive. But she wasn't allowed to tell you.”
“Why?”
Patricia's expression changed.
Before she could answer, someone entered the room.
Charles Vale.
Sebastian had imagined this meeting a thousand times since the phone call.
He expected rage.
He expected disbelief.
Instead, he felt an overwhelming sadness.
Charles was seventy-one now.
His dark hair had gone gray.
He walked with a slight limp.
But his eyes were unmistakable.
“Sebastian,” he said.
Sebastian didn't move.
Charles looked at his son.
“I know you have questions.”
“Eighteen years of them.”
“I never wanted this.”
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“You let me bury you.”
Charles lowered his gaze.
“I had no choice.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“My mother is alive. Patricia is alive. Anna was taken from her family. And you expect me to believe nobody had a choice?”
Charles's face tightened.
“You don't understand what Gregory Sterling is capable of.”
“Then explain it.”
Charles glanced toward Patricia.
She looked at him with open hatred.
“Tell him,” she said.
Charles remained silent.
Patricia raised her voice.
“Tell your son what you did.”
Sebastian waited.
Charles looked at the necklace.
“Margaret found the accounts.”
“What accounts?”
“Sterling Development had been using children's medical charities to move money through construction companies. Gregory arranged the transfers. I authorized them.”
Sebastian stared.
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“Using money meant for sick children?”
Charles's face flushed.
“At first, I was told it was temporary financing. Then the amounts grew.”
Sebastian felt sick.
His father had built his fortune through criminal enterprises.
Sebastian knew that.
But stealing from children's hospitals was something even his father had once publicly condemned.
“Margaret discovered it,” Sebastian said.
Charles nodded.
“She wanted to report everything.”
“What happened?”
“Gregory threatened Patricia's family. He said he'd make the children disappear.”
Emily stood beside her mother.
“Anna.”
Charles looked at her.
“Yes.”
Anna's hands shook.
“You told me my mother abandoned me.”
Charles looked ashamed.
“That was Gregory.”
“You let him.”
“Yes.”
The admission fell heavily.
Sebastian stared at his father.
“Then what happened at the fire?”
Charles rubbed his face.
“Margaret hid evidence. She planned to take Patricia and the girls to the authorities. Gregory found out.”
“And locked the green door?”
Charles looked toward Anna.
She lifted her chin.
“I remember the watch.”
Charles closed his eyes.
“Gregory locked the door. But I didn't know Margaret was still downstairs.”
Sebastian stepped back.
“You left her there.”
“I thought she'd escaped.”
“Then why didn't you call for help?”
Charles's voice broke.
“Because Gregory said if I did, he'd kill the girls.”
Patricia began sobbing.
Emily held her.
Sebastian shook his head.
“You saved yourself.”
Charles didn't deny it.
Then Sebastian asked the question he'd feared most.
“Why did you fake your death?”
Charles looked toward the hallway.
“Because four years after the fire, I tried to take Margaret away.”
Sebastian stared.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Gregory had proof I'd helped cover up the fire. He threatened to expose everything and make sure you were implicated.”
Sebastian took another step back.
Charles continued.
“I agreed to disappear if Gregory left you alone.”
Sebastian looked at him with cold disbelief.
“You never gave me the chance to decide what mattered.”
Charles's eyes filled.
“I know.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Patricia raised her head.
“Enough.”
She looked at Sebastian.
“Your mother is waiting.”
Sebastian turned.
“Where?”
Patricia pointed toward the hallway.
“Eastern wing. Second room.”
Anna reached for the door.
But Charles stopped her.
“There's something you need to understand first.”
Sebastian ignored him.
He walked into the hall.
Past familiar paintings.
Past a cracked mirror.
Past the staircase where his mother used to stand.
At the second room, he stopped.
A nurse opened the door.
Inside, a frail woman sat beside the window.
Her hair was silver.
There were burn scars along one side of her neck.
Her left hand rested motionless on a blanket.
She turned slowly.
Sebastian couldn't speak.
The woman looked at him.
Her eyes filled with tears.
Then she whispered:
“Sebby?”
Nobody had called him that since he was twenty-two.
He crossed the room.
“Mom?”
Margaret reached toward him with her right hand.
He took it.
She smiled through tears.
“I knew you'd come.”
Sebastian sank to his knees.
For the first time in years, he cried without trying to hide it.
Margaret touched his hair.
“My boy.”
He pressed her hand against his cheek.
“I'm here.”
She looked at the necklace hanging from his fingers.
Her expression suddenly changed.
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
Margaret gripped his hand.
“You have to.”
“Why?”
She glanced toward the doorway.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“Because Gregory didn't start the fire to destroy the evidence. He started it to hide what your father did to Anna.”
